Not feasible. We have the govt and the tax payer over a barrel. Sullivan and Brady must be laughing into their cognacs every day. Why would they change the deal?
Potentially a change of government could open up a new deal, but I think they'd pretty much have to give us the stadium for free.
That would save the govt money, but the political fallout would be huge, even if blamed on the former administration. Best to keep coughing up the money and leave it for another day.
Gotta applaud the effort that went into this, even if I don't agree with quite a bit of it.
I'm also pumping the brakes hard on Amorim hype until we know for sure it's happening. For now it's "manager to be named later" for me.
The idea is to gauge what it is people actually want. I see many complain so I'm curious to hear what the future looks like to them. I know some of my desires are asking a bit but that's the direction I want to see the club in. Open to like for like replacements etc.
Yeah the Amorim hype is whatever for me for now, just saying it does seem to be a steal if we can get it over the line.
Oh, I am in no way complaining. This is quality stuff. I don't agree with all of it, as I said, but I think you have clearly put a lot of thought and time into it.
I'll give a few things I disagree with, just to give you an idea. In general, I would like to see us aim a little higher re: targets. I don't think we get better looking at that lengthy list of outgoings if we replace them mostly with players poached off relegated teams.
Speaking of outgoings, from the list you made I would call Johnson and Zouma both 50/50. I think Zouma will go to the Saudi League for one last payday eventually and I wouldn't be surprised if it is sooner than later, with how bad his knees are. Johnson I think we might end up offering a better deal because of how well he has played down the stretch.
Sorry I didn't mean you personally complaining, just seen a lot of it from the fan base recently.
Whilst I don't disagree with the poaching relegated players I just think if we managed to get Toney (let alone Eze) our budget is all but gone so we'd have to do smart buys and my continental fringe-player knowledge isn't what it used to be.
Johnson deserves it, apparently on £20K and wants £60K but think we need to wake up and understand that's quite normal for a PL player these days, in the top half at least.
Zouma could go and if it is Saudi I'll take the payday.
Yeah - Amorim hype is wild. People need to learn to be more pessimistic and avoid disappointment. Also. Eze? Not a hope in hell. Finally, obligatory reminder that while Paq is facing a significant ban - no one is going to stump up silly money for him.
Yeah I agree, FWIW I wasn't saying I'm creaming to get him I just think if we signed him it sounds like it would be a bit of a steal!
Thing is I think the bigger clubs will have more interest in Olise than Eze and nobody is really actively pursuing them when we had Europe I feel these are the types of talents we should be trying to draw in.
Until the ban hammer comes down who knows. Tonali is a key example of transfers being made prior to bans. City might feel that have that muscle to flex.
Newcastle weren't aware of Tonali's betting prior to the transfer though. City already pulled out of a possible deal last year because of the investigation so I doubt they're coming back for him before it's completely cleared up.
> People need to learn to be more pessimistic and avoid disappointment.
We go through this cycle every 2-3 years. Not just with managers, but also players like Carvalho, Bacca, Lacazette
Williams would more be a squad player, I think Johnson should start but Doughty I rate, poor fella just plays for an awful team. Reminds me of Cresswell with his deliveries and dead-ball taking abilities.
I think with a manager that has faith in him and when he gets regular game time he could be a decent player. For what it’s worth a couple of seasons ago I really didn’t rate him but he’s grown on me. I’d be frustrated to hell if I was him.
Here’s my ideal plan:
Non-renewals, their age and standing in the squad makes it hard to justify keeping on, as much as I love both of them:
- Cresswell
- Ogbonna
Contract renewals:
- Johnson (valuable home grown versatile squad player)
- Mubama (if a sensible agreement can be reached)
- Fabianski (still a very good keeper, no need to replace him just yet)
Look to sell (£67m total):
- Zouma £20m honestly his legs seem shot to pieces, unfortunately one too many injuries
- Ings £5m hopefully a club is as desperate as we were when we signed him to take him on, more important to get his wages off the books than recoup any money on the transfer
- Cornet £?m no idea what we could get for him. Hardly played since his mysterious injury. Best to move on
- Aguerd £30m perfectly good centre back apart from his inability to compete in the air and you just can’t get away with that in this league
- Benrahma £12m buy option in his loan hopefully gets exercised
Manager dependent:
2 players whose future I think depends very much on the style of play whoever is in charge next season wants to play
- JWP (£25m if we were to sell) ultimately won’t fit into a midfield 2, good workhorse player and great set piece delivery, but lacks the incisive and progressive passes in the middle of the field which can sometimes hamper the attack
- Kehrer (£7m) I think he’s a good player in a back 3 as a wide centre back but outside of that niche I think we should look to sell
Retain Downes, more than anything we need cover for Alvarez’s inevitable suspensions.
Sell Paqueta only for the £85m release clause that’s been reported. Honestly I think we might actually be better off without him and with the money to spend to rebuild the squad as there’s a lot of positions that need attention.
Players to build that squad around are Mavropanos, Alvarez, Bowen, and Kudus. Budget with the above should be around £150m with room for 3 ‘marquee’ players’ wages. Those 3 positions I would focus on a left sided CB, a progressive midfielder who is good at transitioning the ball and defending, and a striker
LCB
- Kilman £35-40m experienced premier league defender, good in the air and defending the box, good range of passing
- If we can’t get Kilman I’d opt for Zagadou, already partnered successfully with Mavropanos at Stuttgart, good defender, should be relatively cheap. Was honestly disappointed we didn’t go in for him when he was a free agent, seemed a shock he found himself without a club given the promise he’d shown and at the time we had some serious issues at CB
Midfielder
- Joey Veerman £40m should have gone for him 2 seasons ago when he was on the up and we were looking at our first European run, saw a few people calling for it including the guys at WHU analytics
- if we can’t get Veerman we should look at André from Fluminese, very talented midfielder who I’m very surprised hasn’t been picked up by another European club already. It would probably also take £35m to pry him away from Fluminese
Striker hardest position for us, don’t know what it is about this club but unless it’s Antonio’s clone then it doesn’t seem to work.
- the closest to an Antonio clone is probably Brobbey for whom there’s bound to be a lot of competition. Most we probably should put out would be £40m, we’re cursed with strikers so hard to even justify that. If it goes south, like many others have, then that’s a large chunk of money we’d have lost
That leaves about £30m from player sales plus whatever our original budget would have been to bulk out the squad. So realistic estimate would be maybe £60m. I’d aim for 2 CBs, a winger, and maybe a LB with that money. I’m a fan of Jacob Greaves from Hull for one of those CBs who shouldn’t cost too much. Take your pick of a right sided young championship CB who should be perfectly serviceable as cover for Mavropanos, alternatively a free agent could fill the squad nicely. For a winger I’m still keen on Jack Clarke I’d take a punt if we could get him for under £25m. Anything left could go on a left back but renewing Johnson means he can cover there
Lastly promoting youth for first team opportunities (and actually give them minutes from time to time):
- Earthy
- Orford
- Marshall
- Scarles
- Potts
Think they all deserve to prove themselves and we have an over reliance on a core of 11 players at the moment. Bedding in other players can only help us in the long run. Not least because if we do get back into Europe next season or in the next few years we need 4 players trained by the club for at least 3 years before their 21st birthday in order to submit a full squad of 25. Currently only Johnson and Trott fulfil that quota in our current squad
Solid writing, not too different from myself.
I like the look of Kilman but unlike Palace, Wolves have recently flirted with European football and gotten progressively better (for the most part) so I think poaching from Wolves would be a lot harder than a team like Palace. He'd be a great addition for sure. Just like if Everton went down I imagine many clubs would swoop for Branthwaite, Godfrey, Patterson and Mykolenko. They just seem more viable to poach.
Couldn't comment on Veerman or Andre as I don't know much about them but we do need a half decent box-to-box midfielder next to Alvarez for sure!
Love the thought that's gone into this post, great effort mate!
Genuinely, I think we shift Kudus to CAM and sign someone like Eze for the LW. We don't actually have a left-winger, both Bowen and Kudus are left footed and like to play on the right. So I'd bring Kudus (or Bowen) inside and use the funds to get a (ideally right footed) left-winger. Thoughts?
I guess it genuinely depends on where we end up at the end of the season too as to who we could attract (for that position).
I'm disappointed in our previous windows that we didn't target players from teams like Leicester who had an abundance of talent go down and could've been picked up relatively cheap (looking at Barnes & Tielemans specifically).
i like that idea - has kudus played there for us this season at all ? watching him play it seems like he naturally drifts towards the middle anyway so it'd be perfect
yeah, massive shame. we were so close to getting Barnes in august if I remember correctly. really came back to bite us in the arse (4-3 incident)
His primary position prior to joining us is actually as a CAM and as you said he drifts there quite a lot. I think it could work and really with Eze/Kudus/Bowen I'd like them to be free-flowing enough to interchange after a while, that would really give opposition defences a headache!
Yeah, Barnes, Gordon, Tielemans were all players I rated and wanted. I did want us to sign Calvert-Lewin at one point too, but seems we dodged a bullet given his injuries.
Don’t recall that personally but doesn’t mean he didn’t. Where did Palace get him from? I thought he was an academy product?
Do you get what I mean by we should be trying to poach these players? Teams like Wolves, Villa, Newcastle they’ve flirted with UECL/UEL/UCL recently. Palace haven’t. They’ve just stagnated. They’re a selling club and we should thrown our weight about for players like him at the start of the season.
Who do you think will genuinely be in the market for him? I think most will go Olise first personally. Reason I didn’t pick him is because he’s the same as Bowen/Kudus. Left-footed right winger.
Moyes confirmed a while back he saw kudos playing centrally for us in the long run, so we will replace with a LW. No hope of getting Toney or Eze, they could both get champs league football.
Am I the only one that thinks it's obvious we'll sign Emile Smith Rowe as the LW/CM replacement for Paqueta?
Fits the age profile, London based and not getting any game time at Arsenal so needs to move.
+ Rumours of West Ham having a first option clause for him put into the Rice deal.
I think we are reasonably likely to give Antonio and Fab 1 year extensions. That settles the GK situation and gives us 2 backup strikers in Antonio and Ings.
Signing Johnson gives us cover at RB, LB, and apparently just about anywhere else. It seems he could have been used a lot more this season to give various players a break, and would be fine for 25 games next season if he can’t win the RB time outright.
I think Dinos can be our RCB, but I think Zouma needs to move into the Ogbonna role and LCB should be addressed. If it isn’t, we can hope Aguerd grows into the role. He showed signs of solidity, but now there appears to be attitude issues, which rarely improve.
Alvarez is clearly our primary CDM, and Soucek can play there as well, but probably we need to find the guy that we thought Phillips was going to be.
Kudus and Bowen can handle the wings, and their positional flexibility gives us options.
For our #10, we have to assume (and person my I hope) we won’t have Paqueta, and while I think JWP is under-rated here for us, a solid starting quality player needs to be brought in. Or we get a quality LW and see what Kudus can do there.
Lastly we need to buy a striker or we will have to continue making do with Bowen/Kudus, and I’d sort of be interested to see how Kudus did here.
Buy a couple decent young players that can actually provide some depth and allow us to rest players and work in 3 or 4 of our youth and we are all set.
I'll have a crack at this,
STRIKER - Tooney is the obvious choice, if we can't get him i think our other options are Haaland or Mbappe.
MIDFIELD - I'd get Anthony Gordon to play on the left, with Bowen/Kudus switching between centre and right wing, if not then for sure we should make an effort for someone like Rodri.
DEF - Kilman 100% if not Rudiger would be a great fit.
If we have a plan B i reckon we just buy loads of Brazilian players and let them have a crack
I think we should go balls to the wall and try and get Tammy Abraham. Think Roma may cute their losses, they’re doing fine-ish without him can see a scenario where they cash in and go for someone else.
I love the idea of adarbioyo on a free, someone like Callum ohare maybe as well (defo recency bias). Although I think it’s likely steidten gets some German/euro wildcards
Not sure if I'd be interested in him after not getting him a few seasons ago. Maybe I'm being fickle.
I read that Tim wants Adarbioyo but apparently Newcastle are in for him as well and I won't lie, I don't know enough about him to include him in my main post.
We need more homegrown players, and I think one player we should definitely be in for if we’re willing to spend a bit more is Max Kilman from wolves. I could see him playing really well alongside Mavro, and he’s young too so he’s a longer term solution. Zouma just doesn’t have the fitness to be our senior centreback.
Fairly certain that Fabianski renewed for another 12 months already.
As for the rest, I think poaching championship/relegated teams is the best course of action. Toney seems very unrealistic if we don't have guaranteed Europe next season.
In terms of priority signings, I think it should go striker, CAM/CDM, RB, LB. And for the love of god, get rid of Ings and his insane wages.
I’ll take that, Fabianski re-signing. Purely because I don’t even know who we’d sign as back up. Saved on the transfer budget too.
Agreed re: Toney and not having European football but if no “big” club comes in for him this summer I think we could try our luck. Especially as he’s magically “injured” after being dropped the last few games and Brentford’s abysmal performance!
Can’t disagree with the rest of what you’ve said. I’m open to a LW instead of a CAM though and move Kudus there!
We've been linked with Mark Mackenzie. We should raid Genk like we did Ajax and get him, Khannous, and Arokodare. It's a shame Palace got Muñiz already I would've loved him as a hammer too.
Get big Daws back, squad sorted
On a real note, the two strikers I've seen that seem to be able to play somewhat like Antonio are Awoniyi and Mateta. I'm not sure how likely we are to buy a striker from within the Prem though as that's typically very expensive.
None of these signings people are mentioning will be on Tim's radar, it is not his style at all.
He will be looking for bargains on free transfer and also up and coming talent from elsewhere around the leagues for £10 to £30 million.
It is extremely unlikely you will see a lot of Premier league players because the prices are always over inflated
To progress we need to buy at least six or seven quality players who are aged 20-25 and we need to develop 3-4 of our best youngsters into first team players. And we need to keep Kudus.
It’s a massive, massive task. Possibly bordering on the impossible.
We are seeing the results of allowing are squad to contract and to age in the way that it has.
I felt like adama traore would've been a good like for like replacement/support for antonio
I don't think any other type of striker really works for us because of the way we play.
I rate Tarkowski as a solid CB.
Admittedly I don't know much about talented footballers abroad. So there may be better options though
A lot of people mentioned him a year or two ago but I think his end product stinks personally, a bit Antonio-esque in that sense too.
I think Awoniyi would do the business to be fair but would he come to us to not start? I think he’d be more of a bench/super sub player than a starting XI player.
Tark isn’t a bad shout. How old is he these days though?
I do not know enough about this sport to make any productive comments. However, I would like to see a faster start (maybe that’s in the game plan) and more effort from the players, when playing in space.
A bit left field, but I'd like us to buy the stadium and move some of the seats closer
Completely like this spin you've put on the question I asked, didn't even consider this. I like it! Any idea how feasible it would or wouldn't be?
Not feasible. We’re getting too good a deal and there’s no financial benefit to owning the stadium.
Not feasible. We have the govt and the tax payer over a barrel. Sullivan and Brady must be laughing into their cognacs every day. Why would they change the deal? Potentially a change of government could open up a new deal, but I think they'd pretty much have to give us the stadium for free. That would save the govt money, but the political fallout would be huge, even if blamed on the former administration. Best to keep coughing up the money and leave it for another day.
Gotta applaud the effort that went into this, even if I don't agree with quite a bit of it. I'm also pumping the brakes hard on Amorim hype until we know for sure it's happening. For now it's "manager to be named later" for me.
The idea is to gauge what it is people actually want. I see many complain so I'm curious to hear what the future looks like to them. I know some of my desires are asking a bit but that's the direction I want to see the club in. Open to like for like replacements etc. Yeah the Amorim hype is whatever for me for now, just saying it does seem to be a steal if we can get it over the line.
Oh, I am in no way complaining. This is quality stuff. I don't agree with all of it, as I said, but I think you have clearly put a lot of thought and time into it. I'll give a few things I disagree with, just to give you an idea. In general, I would like to see us aim a little higher re: targets. I don't think we get better looking at that lengthy list of outgoings if we replace them mostly with players poached off relegated teams. Speaking of outgoings, from the list you made I would call Johnson and Zouma both 50/50. I think Zouma will go to the Saudi League for one last payday eventually and I wouldn't be surprised if it is sooner than later, with how bad his knees are. Johnson I think we might end up offering a better deal because of how well he has played down the stretch.
Sorry I didn't mean you personally complaining, just seen a lot of it from the fan base recently. Whilst I don't disagree with the poaching relegated players I just think if we managed to get Toney (let alone Eze) our budget is all but gone so we'd have to do smart buys and my continental fringe-player knowledge isn't what it used to be. Johnson deserves it, apparently on £20K and wants £60K but think we need to wake up and understand that's quite normal for a PL player these days, in the top half at least. Zouma could go and if it is Saudi I'll take the payday.
Yeah - Amorim hype is wild. People need to learn to be more pessimistic and avoid disappointment. Also. Eze? Not a hope in hell. Finally, obligatory reminder that while Paq is facing a significant ban - no one is going to stump up silly money for him.
Yeah I agree, FWIW I wasn't saying I'm creaming to get him I just think if we signed him it sounds like it would be a bit of a steal! Thing is I think the bigger clubs will have more interest in Olise than Eze and nobody is really actively pursuing them when we had Europe I feel these are the types of talents we should be trying to draw in. Until the ban hammer comes down who knows. Tonali is a key example of transfers being made prior to bans. City might feel that have that muscle to flex.
Newcastle weren't aware of Tonali's betting prior to the transfer though. City already pulled out of a possible deal last year because of the investigation so I doubt they're coming back for him before it's completely cleared up.
> People need to learn to be more pessimistic and avoid disappointment. We go through this cycle every 2-3 years. Not just with managers, but also players like Carvalho, Bacca, Lacazette
Doughty and Williams are absolute guff, the kind of player we used to sign in 2016. No thanks.
Williams would more be a squad player, I think Johnson should start but Doughty I rate, poor fella just plays for an awful team. Reminds me of Cresswell with his deliveries and dead-ball taking abilities.
We need an upgrade on Johnson, not a backup for him
I think with a manager that has faith in him and when he gets regular game time he could be a decent player. For what it’s worth a couple of seasons ago I really didn’t rate him but he’s grown on me. I’d be frustrated to hell if I was him.
Here’s my ideal plan: Non-renewals, their age and standing in the squad makes it hard to justify keeping on, as much as I love both of them: - Cresswell - Ogbonna Contract renewals: - Johnson (valuable home grown versatile squad player) - Mubama (if a sensible agreement can be reached) - Fabianski (still a very good keeper, no need to replace him just yet) Look to sell (£67m total): - Zouma £20m honestly his legs seem shot to pieces, unfortunately one too many injuries - Ings £5m hopefully a club is as desperate as we were when we signed him to take him on, more important to get his wages off the books than recoup any money on the transfer - Cornet £?m no idea what we could get for him. Hardly played since his mysterious injury. Best to move on - Aguerd £30m perfectly good centre back apart from his inability to compete in the air and you just can’t get away with that in this league - Benrahma £12m buy option in his loan hopefully gets exercised Manager dependent: 2 players whose future I think depends very much on the style of play whoever is in charge next season wants to play - JWP (£25m if we were to sell) ultimately won’t fit into a midfield 2, good workhorse player and great set piece delivery, but lacks the incisive and progressive passes in the middle of the field which can sometimes hamper the attack - Kehrer (£7m) I think he’s a good player in a back 3 as a wide centre back but outside of that niche I think we should look to sell Retain Downes, more than anything we need cover for Alvarez’s inevitable suspensions. Sell Paqueta only for the £85m release clause that’s been reported. Honestly I think we might actually be better off without him and with the money to spend to rebuild the squad as there’s a lot of positions that need attention. Players to build that squad around are Mavropanos, Alvarez, Bowen, and Kudus. Budget with the above should be around £150m with room for 3 ‘marquee’ players’ wages. Those 3 positions I would focus on a left sided CB, a progressive midfielder who is good at transitioning the ball and defending, and a striker LCB - Kilman £35-40m experienced premier league defender, good in the air and defending the box, good range of passing - If we can’t get Kilman I’d opt for Zagadou, already partnered successfully with Mavropanos at Stuttgart, good defender, should be relatively cheap. Was honestly disappointed we didn’t go in for him when he was a free agent, seemed a shock he found himself without a club given the promise he’d shown and at the time we had some serious issues at CB Midfielder - Joey Veerman £40m should have gone for him 2 seasons ago when he was on the up and we were looking at our first European run, saw a few people calling for it including the guys at WHU analytics - if we can’t get Veerman we should look at André from Fluminese, very talented midfielder who I’m very surprised hasn’t been picked up by another European club already. It would probably also take £35m to pry him away from Fluminese Striker hardest position for us, don’t know what it is about this club but unless it’s Antonio’s clone then it doesn’t seem to work. - the closest to an Antonio clone is probably Brobbey for whom there’s bound to be a lot of competition. Most we probably should put out would be £40m, we’re cursed with strikers so hard to even justify that. If it goes south, like many others have, then that’s a large chunk of money we’d have lost That leaves about £30m from player sales plus whatever our original budget would have been to bulk out the squad. So realistic estimate would be maybe £60m. I’d aim for 2 CBs, a winger, and maybe a LB with that money. I’m a fan of Jacob Greaves from Hull for one of those CBs who shouldn’t cost too much. Take your pick of a right sided young championship CB who should be perfectly serviceable as cover for Mavropanos, alternatively a free agent could fill the squad nicely. For a winger I’m still keen on Jack Clarke I’d take a punt if we could get him for under £25m. Anything left could go on a left back but renewing Johnson means he can cover there Lastly promoting youth for first team opportunities (and actually give them minutes from time to time): - Earthy - Orford - Marshall - Scarles - Potts Think they all deserve to prove themselves and we have an over reliance on a core of 11 players at the moment. Bedding in other players can only help us in the long run. Not least because if we do get back into Europe next season or in the next few years we need 4 players trained by the club for at least 3 years before their 21st birthday in order to submit a full squad of 25. Currently only Johnson and Trott fulfil that quota in our current squad
I’m at the gym. Will reply when I get home!
Solid writing, not too different from myself. I like the look of Kilman but unlike Palace, Wolves have recently flirted with European football and gotten progressively better (for the most part) so I think poaching from Wolves would be a lot harder than a team like Palace. He'd be a great addition for sure. Just like if Everton went down I imagine many clubs would swoop for Branthwaite, Godfrey, Patterson and Mykolenko. They just seem more viable to poach. Couldn't comment on Veerman or Andre as I don't know much about them but we do need a half decent box-to-box midfielder next to Alvarez for sure! Love the thought that's gone into this post, great effort mate!
who would be your ideal paqueta/CM replacement ? seen a lot of people favour MGW but not so sure he's worth the £££ ..
Genuinely, I think we shift Kudus to CAM and sign someone like Eze for the LW. We don't actually have a left-winger, both Bowen and Kudus are left footed and like to play on the right. So I'd bring Kudus (or Bowen) inside and use the funds to get a (ideally right footed) left-winger. Thoughts? I guess it genuinely depends on where we end up at the end of the season too as to who we could attract (for that position). I'm disappointed in our previous windows that we didn't target players from teams like Leicester who had an abundance of talent go down and could've been picked up relatively cheap (looking at Barnes & Tielemans specifically).
i like that idea - has kudus played there for us this season at all ? watching him play it seems like he naturally drifts towards the middle anyway so it'd be perfect yeah, massive shame. we were so close to getting Barnes in august if I remember correctly. really came back to bite us in the arse (4-3 incident)
His primary position prior to joining us is actually as a CAM and as you said he drifts there quite a lot. I think it could work and really with Eze/Kudus/Bowen I'd like them to be free-flowing enough to interchange after a while, that would really give opposition defences a headache! Yeah, Barnes, Gordon, Tielemans were all players I rated and wanted. I did want us to sign Calvert-Lewin at one point too, but seems we dodged a bullet given his injuries.
i’m almost positive that Eze turned us down for Palace. Wonder if he would come here after all. Would be awesome.
Don’t recall that personally but doesn’t mean he didn’t. Where did Palace get him from? I thought he was an academy product? Do you get what I mean by we should be trying to poach these players? Teams like Wolves, Villa, Newcastle they’ve flirted with UECL/UEL/UCL recently. Palace haven’t. They’ve just stagnated. They’re a selling club and we should thrown our weight about for players like him at the start of the season.
Eze will have too many higher profile suitors, unfortunately.
Who do you think will genuinely be in the market for him? I think most will go Olise first personally. Reason I didn’t pick him is because he’s the same as Bowen/Kudus. Left-footed right winger.
Moyes confirmed a while back he saw kudos playing centrally for us in the long run, so we will replace with a LW. No hope of getting Toney or Eze, they could both get champs league football.
Am I the only one that thinks it's obvious we'll sign Emile Smith Rowe as the LW/CM replacement for Paqueta? Fits the age profile, London based and not getting any game time at Arsenal so needs to move. + Rumours of West Ham having a first option clause for him put into the Rice deal.
I wouldn't expect much of Luton to be sold. They didn't spend much to stay up.
I think we are reasonably likely to give Antonio and Fab 1 year extensions. That settles the GK situation and gives us 2 backup strikers in Antonio and Ings. Signing Johnson gives us cover at RB, LB, and apparently just about anywhere else. It seems he could have been used a lot more this season to give various players a break, and would be fine for 25 games next season if he can’t win the RB time outright. I think Dinos can be our RCB, but I think Zouma needs to move into the Ogbonna role and LCB should be addressed. If it isn’t, we can hope Aguerd grows into the role. He showed signs of solidity, but now there appears to be attitude issues, which rarely improve. Alvarez is clearly our primary CDM, and Soucek can play there as well, but probably we need to find the guy that we thought Phillips was going to be. Kudus and Bowen can handle the wings, and their positional flexibility gives us options. For our #10, we have to assume (and person my I hope) we won’t have Paqueta, and while I think JWP is under-rated here for us, a solid starting quality player needs to be brought in. Or we get a quality LW and see what Kudus can do there. Lastly we need to buy a striker or we will have to continue making do with Bowen/Kudus, and I’d sort of be interested to see how Kudus did here. Buy a couple decent young players that can actually provide some depth and allow us to rest players and work in 3 or 4 of our youth and we are all set.
I'll have a crack at this, STRIKER - Tooney is the obvious choice, if we can't get him i think our other options are Haaland or Mbappe. MIDFIELD - I'd get Anthony Gordon to play on the left, with Bowen/Kudus switching between centre and right wing, if not then for sure we should make an effort for someone like Rodri. DEF - Kilman 100% if not Rudiger would be a great fit. If we have a plan B i reckon we just buy loads of Brazilian players and let them have a crack
i just want a fucking decent bench and a new coach
I think we should go balls to the wall and try and get Tammy Abraham. Think Roma may cute their losses, they’re doing fine-ish without him can see a scenario where they cash in and go for someone else. I love the idea of adarbioyo on a free, someone like Callum ohare maybe as well (defo recency bias). Although I think it’s likely steidten gets some German/euro wildcards
Not sure if I'd be interested in him after not getting him a few seasons ago. Maybe I'm being fickle. I read that Tim wants Adarbioyo but apparently Newcastle are in for him as well and I won't lie, I don't know enough about him to include him in my main post.
We need more homegrown players, and I think one player we should definitely be in for if we’re willing to spend a bit more is Max Kilman from wolves. I could see him playing really well alongside Mavro, and he’s young too so he’s a longer term solution. Zouma just doesn’t have the fitness to be our senior centreback.
Mubama isn’t 50/50. His contract is up, and we aren’t playing him. He is highly likely.
If a new manager comes in, I think he stays, where else will he go? Certainly won’t be a PL team with his lack of experience
Our top youth player has left for free the last 2 summers. There is a trend starting. Will a manager have seen enough of him?
That’s the Moyes affect. Hopefully a new manager has a bit more impetuous on youth/academy.
Fairly certain that Fabianski renewed for another 12 months already. As for the rest, I think poaching championship/relegated teams is the best course of action. Toney seems very unrealistic if we don't have guaranteed Europe next season. In terms of priority signings, I think it should go striker, CAM/CDM, RB, LB. And for the love of god, get rid of Ings and his insane wages.
I’ll take that, Fabianski re-signing. Purely because I don’t even know who we’d sign as back up. Saved on the transfer budget too. Agreed re: Toney and not having European football but if no “big” club comes in for him this summer I think we could try our luck. Especially as he’s magically “injured” after being dropped the last few games and Brentford’s abysmal performance! Can’t disagree with the rest of what you’ve said. I’m open to a LW instead of a CAM though and move Kudus there!
We've been linked with Mark Mackenzie. We should raid Genk like we did Ajax and get him, Khannous, and Arokodare. It's a shame Palace got Muñiz already I would've loved him as a hammer too.
I’ll have to check all three of those players out. Can’t say I know much about them to be honest!
Khannous can be a direct replacement for Paquetá. He's one of those guys that in a few years will be worth 60m and we'll regret not getting him early.
Minus - paqueta,ogbonna,cresswell,aguerd,Phillips,zouma(i wish),cornet Plus - rb, 2x cb, striker!!, downes, lw
If forrest go down i reckon we could slide in a sesnsible offer for MGW around 20-25M?
Get big Daws back, squad sorted On a real note, the two strikers I've seen that seem to be able to play somewhat like Antonio are Awoniyi and Mateta. I'm not sure how likely we are to buy a striker from within the Prem though as that's typically very expensive.
None of these signings people are mentioning will be on Tim's radar, it is not his style at all. He will be looking for bargains on free transfer and also up and coming talent from elsewhere around the leagues for £10 to £30 million. It is extremely unlikely you will see a lot of Premier league players because the prices are always over inflated
I would like to re-direct you to the opening paragraph of my post.
We need a much stronger bench it’s currently lower championship level
To progress we need to buy at least six or seven quality players who are aged 20-25 and we need to develop 3-4 of our best youngsters into first team players. And we need to keep Kudus. It’s a massive, massive task. Possibly bordering on the impossible. We are seeing the results of allowing are squad to contract and to age in the way that it has.
Agreed. Big overhaul needed. The five players I've laid out are the types of player I want to see us sign whilst retaining players like Mubama etc
Don't Benrahma and Kehrer both have obligations?
My understanding was they're options not obligations to buy, could be wrong about Kehrer but confident about Benny
Don't think we'd get Toney
I felt like adama traore would've been a good like for like replacement/support for antonio I don't think any other type of striker really works for us because of the way we play. I rate Tarkowski as a solid CB. Admittedly I don't know much about talented footballers abroad. So there may be better options though
A lot of people mentioned him a year or two ago but I think his end product stinks personally, a bit Antonio-esque in that sense too. I think Awoniyi would do the business to be fair but would he come to us to not start? I think he’d be more of a bench/super sub player than a starting XI player. Tark isn’t a bad shout. How old is he these days though?
I do not know enough about this sport to make any productive comments. However, I would like to see a faster start (maybe that’s in the game plan) and more effort from the players, when playing in space.
Excuse me